


Tension

by syrupwit



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Pre-Threesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:22:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29266425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syrupwit/pseuds/syrupwit
Summary: When the comm signal at last breaks through, Rose hardly notices, absorbed as she is in swearing her ass off and trying to cut blood-tacky fabric from skin.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren/Rose Tico
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Tension

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kay_obsessive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_obsessive/gifts).



When the comm signal at last breaks through, Rose hardly notices, absorbed as she is in swearing her ass off and trying to cut blood-tacky fabric from skin. It's after Rey's fifth or sixth worried "Rose?" that Rose recognizes her voice as a meaningful pattern inside the endless background static.

"Hey," says Rose, aiming for the sort of casual that only Poe Dameron can carry off. Doesn't work; she just comes across as shaky and scared. At least her knife hand is steady.

"Rose! What's wrong?" Rey sounds worried, tinny and remote up in the _Falcon._ It would've been her on the ground mission, in Rose's place or _his_ or both, but the First Order's new Force dampeners make her too sick to move. They're particularly effective on Rey, a remnant of the former Supreme Leader's mild interest in her before his apprentice murdered him and defected to the Resistance. Speaking of. 

"Your boyfriend tried to sacrifice himself again," Rose informs Rey. Beneath her hands, Kylo Ren's stomach trembles as he grits out a furious, "Did not."

"Hold still, you liar," Rose snaps, putting the knife aside to disinfect and fumbling in her kit for a medpatch. He flinches when she applies it to the mess of his torso, but he mostly obeys. Although the wound will likely require precious bacta later, the medpatch can serve in the meantime.

"You should have left me when those soldiers appeared," he spits, glaring at Rose. "You could've grabbed the intel, I can take care of myself, and then we wouldn't have to go back now."

"Ben." Rey's tone is firm. "We don't leave people behind in the Resistance."

"But—" He knows arguing is futile.

"We don't." 

_I would have left him,_ Rose thinks, and—though it's impossible—watches him read her mind.

* * *

They retrieve the intel successfully, but return to the ship half a standard day behind schedule. Rey is on the subspace radio with Finn when they emerge into the cabin. She flashes Rose a brilliant, giddy smile that makes her heart swell one moment and pop sourly the next, when she trains it on Kylo Ren with precisely the same intensity. 

He goes over to Rey and stands behind her seat, a proprietary hand on the backrest. He's hiding the pain from his injury. Rose hopes it gets infected. 

She still can't believe anyone trusts him, at least to the extent that they're letting him go on missions alone with people like Rose. The Resistance's numbers are stretched thinner every day, but they can't be that desperate yet. Even without Master Skywalker, they've still got a Jedi. Although Rey has been seeming tired lately...

Finn wants to talk to Rose, so she takes Rey's place at the radio. He has a lot to share, and she's swept away by his excitement over the caper he just pulled off with Poe. She finds herself retelling the recent debacle with more gusto than she thought she could. As she reaches the few thrilling parts of the narrative—their daring re-entry, the narrow second escape—she can't help but glance over at the others, who have settled at the dejarik table together.

They're doing their creepy silent communication thing, even though they’re in each other’s faces. Literally in each other’s faces. And now they’re kissing. All right! Time to look away. 

Any second now.

"Could you... uh..." Rose regrets opening her mouth as soon as they break the kiss to stare at her. "Never mind." Rey looks adorably embarrassed, but Kylo Ren just stares harder.

"Rose?" asks Finn, perplexed. She resumes her story.

* * *

Outside of hyperspace, a Knight of Ren is waiting for them. Rose knows the look of the Knights' ships by now—the whole Resistance has been briefed on their resources, their abilities, their names and weaknesses—but she hasn't faced one in person before. Just one ragged fighter, yet its shape curdles dread in her gut and weights her limbs to stone. And she's supposed to give her fate to the will of this creature's erstwhile leader? 

Rather than engage the Knight, Rey moves to evade him, turning the Falcon suddenly and accelerating in an unexpected direction. The Knight follows. The ensuing chase leads to an ice field in the outer rings of a gas giant, where their pursuer haunts them through shining hailstorms to the atmosphere of a small, hidden moon. 

"He won't stop," bellows Kylo Ren, as the Knight dodges another shot from the cannon he's manning. The moon's surface looms below them, ever closer. "I have to kill him."

"You're still hurt," Rey asserts. "I'll go."

Rose just hopes this junk-bucket holds together.

The Knight lands. Rey comes to meet him, dropping from the ship like a meteor as they swoop by him. She's so bright, the blue flare of her lightsaber arcing across the gray gloom of the moonscape. When Rose sees Rey like this, she can hardly believe that she knows her—that she's Rey, Rose's friend, as well as this impossible being of myth. They bring the ship nearby and wait for her, hovering, tense. 

The Knight emerges from his fighter: a craggy figure in battered, mismatched armor, his enormous cleaving weapon a little ridiculous. As he advances to swing it towards Rey, Rose fingers her medallion, grounding herself with the crescent's biting edge. She feels Kylo Ren shift beside her and glances at him. He's practically boiling.

"She'll be fine," says Rose, trying to reassure herself as much as him.

"I should be down there." His eyes track the motions of combat below.

"Well, next time don't try to play the hero, and maybe you won't get injured and have to stay out of it."

"I wasn't—" He visibly chokes back a retort. "That wasn't what I meant to do."

"Is that so?" The mocking cast to Rose's voice isn't like her, but she can't keep it out. She wonders, half-seriously, if he'll attack her for this.

They watch Rey bend nearly in half to avoid the cleaver, both sighing in relief as she bounces back and lands her own slicing blow. "You wouldn't get it. Rey is—I owe her everything. I have to do whatever I can for her, to make up for what I've done before. No matter what it takes."

"So stay alive for her!" Rose snaps. "Don't do stupid things. If you'd just waited or hid instead of rushing at those soldiers, we could have gotten the intel much faster."

"Or maybe they would've just killed you, if I hadn't distracted them." He's watching her now. "You really aren't afraid of me."

"Oh no, I absolutely am afraid of you." Why is this flustering her? He shouldn't be looking at her. "I don't trust you, either. But I care about Rey."

"At least we have that in common." Is he _smiling_?

Rose turns back to the battle, feeling her face heat. The Knight is doing something over-complicated involving his cleaver and the sword strapped across his chest. "Is there any reason we can't just shoot this guy?"

"He'll absorb the energy and turn it back at us."

"Blast."

For a moment, the mood between them is almost companionable. 

* * *

Rey kills the Knight. Could they have doubted she would? When they scoop her from the battleground, his body lies in pieces. But, brought aboard, she's not the mythical hero anymore. She collapses hot and weeping in Rose's arms, and tells her how the Knight begged her, before he died, to take his head as a trophy. Begged her to cut and wear a swatch from his skin. She still hears him.

"That's Trudgen," says Kylo Ren awkwardly, like a joke.

Rose comforts Rey while he gets the ship ready to leave, still trying to hide the effects of his wound. Though they've missed their planned rendezvous with Finn and Poe, they'll meet back at the current Resistance base. Rose can already feel the hot springs there, smell the freezing, slightly fishy air. She'll miss the stale scents of space soon enough, but for now it's nice to dream of something different.

After she's cried enough, Rey falls asleep. Rose doesn't notice she's drifting off too until she feels a tap on her shoulder.

"Agh!" In her startlement, Rose jostles Rey, almost waking her up.

"Here." Kylo Ren holds out a blanket. "It seemed like you were—"

She takes it. "Uh, thanks." The blanket is big enough to cover both her and Rey, and while worn, it's surprisingly cozy. "Where did you find this?"

He just looks at her, and she remembers whose ship this was.

Well, that's his problem. He can go brood about it. He does, knocking loudly around the cabin during the last few preparations for takeoff. Rose realizes, cuddled against Rey and halfway asleep again, that she isn't scared he'll lead them off course. Isn't concerned he'll betray them. It's a possibility, sure, but on some level... she might be getting used to him.

Oh no.


End file.
